We were very happy to have gotten these in Mitchell and are hoping to redo the memorial in the near future.

This information is not out to the media just yet... I have posted it here because of the reputation this group has for honoring those who have served and the honesty of those who post.

lunarrv15

It's been roughly some 16 years I visited the place. I will consider in the future a re-visit. Will his Mercury craft ever be temporarily on display there?

spgrissom

I doubt it... we tried to get it to stop as it traveled to Indianapolis. However, that was squashed.

SpaceDust

Thanks for the info. I live in Louisville, Ky. about 50 miles away so I'll have to make a trip soon. It's good to hear that the memorial has something new. It's been needing an update for some time.

mdmyer

Thanks for that information. I am currently setting at the public computer at the Super 8 in Bedford which is about 8 miles from Mitchell. We are going to visit the Grissom Memorial on Wednesday morning. Any chance the items will be on display by then?

spgrissom

I am not certain... I doubt it though. I just dropped off the artifacts Monday. I know that they will be out by the 16th of July. But I am not sure as to when the park will open them to display exactly.

KSCartist

quote:Originally posted by spgrissom:This information is not out to the media just yet... I have posted it here because of the reputation this group has for honoring those who have served and the honesty of those who post.

Thank you for the information. Col. Grissom was a true American Hero and this memorial deserves all the support it gets (and more).

Obviousman

Would someone post some pics or link to a website with pics when available?

I won't be travelling to the US for some time, and would love to see the memorial.

pokey

As a child my grandpa would drive all of us grandkids by Grissom's boyhood home in Mitchell. He would point at the house and tell us, "The boy that grew up in that house went into space." Then he would slap the dashboard, shake his head, laugh then drive us to where ever it was we were heading that day. Fond memories of a man (Grissom) I never met.

Mitchell has a lot of limestone with what I found out later was karst topography for you geology nuts. Bedford is famous for their limestone quarries, especially their oolitic limestone.

mdmyer

quote:Originally posted by Obviousman:Would someone post some pics or link to a website with pics when available?

We visited Mitchell, IN this summer. We stopped at the downtown Gus Grissom Monument and then we went to the Mill Spring State Park to visit the Gus Grissom Memorial. Here are some of our photos.

This shows the small roadside marker welcoming people to the downtown Gus Grissom Monument. The girl in the photo is my daughter Miranda.

This is of the limestone Gemini rocket. I was surprised at how large this rocket is. The Monument is big. The stand that the Gemini sets on has 8 panels detailing some highlights of Gus's career.

These are of these panels.

This is of a brick wall that was made from the bricks from the elementary school that Gus attended. The brick wall is behind the Gemini rocket.

mdmyer

This is of the Gus Grissom Memorial at the Mill Spring State Park.

These show the Gemini 3 spaceship and Gus's Gemini spacesuit.

The Memorial at Mill Spring State Park is small but very nice. They have a good film about Gus and they have his Gemini Spacesuit. I visited the Memorial on the 5th of July and the items recently donated by Betty were not on display yet. The Molly Brown is on display. The display is great and you can get right up next to the Molly Brown but its location does not allow you to get away from the spaceship to take a good photo. A fisheye lens would have helped but I do not have one. The Memorial is free but we left a donation before we left.

Obviousman

Ah! Magnificent! Thank you very much for that.

I have a great respect and admiration for Gus - and not just because I share his birthady!

spgrissom

Just an update... I just delivered more items to the Grissom Memorial on July 2, 2007. The items were of Gus's college days. His slide rule, drawing compasses, eraser brush, and some photo's are a few. They will be on display shortly. The Grissom collection is growing... slowly, by growing nonetheless.

A year ago -- July 30, 2007 -- the park received a $150,000 Museum of America grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The money is to be spent renovating the park's Virgil "Gus" Grissom Memorial Center.

The grant would pay for an addition to the facility as well as improvements to the existing exhibits to better preserve the collections and clarify their importance.

The grant required that the $150,000 be matched before plans could be made to remodel the existing center.

According to Jill Vance, interpretive naturalist, the matching money for the grant is coming from the state. Park officials are working from conceptual designs developed by ICON, a Fort Wayne firm, for the exhibit design.

Vance said specific design will not be completed until after a signed contract is in place, which she expects by the end of August. The renovation timeline is still in flux, but park officials are looking at a likely completion date in the spring.

Current exhibits will be replaced with new ones that will incorporate existing artifacts, such as the Molly Brown, with items recently received from Grissom's wife, Betty.

Included in the remodeling will be an expansion of the exhibit area. Final details on the exhibit space and design will be available after the contract is signed and the conceptual design has been reworked.

mikej

I stopped off at the memorial yesterday on the way home from the USSRC's Saturn/Apollo Reunion. We'd planned the stop months ago and didn't know about "Grissom Days" until we arrived.

It looks like the memorial hasn't changed much (if any) since mdmyer posted the pictures above. But, I hadn't visited in over 5 years, so there were some changes (to me).

There were two fellows in front of the memorial with a good-sized (maybe 8- or 10-inch) telescope with a solar filter. The sun had just risen over the tree line when we got there, and they were in the final process of getting things set up. They had several books and some pictures they've taken over the years of sunspots and other solar phenomena.

There was a guy in a blue NASA flight suit inside greeting people with "Happy Moon Day!" After we were there a short while, he brought out some items which he said were recently donated. These included a Marshall-built Mercury-Redstone model, some sort of stainless steel-looking Gemini-Titan model, an Air Force flight jacket, the cowboy hat given to Gus by LBJ, and several items given to Gus on his post-flight tour.

One item which appears to no longer be on display was the electrical power system relay display from the Cosmosphere. The volunteer said that there were additional artifacts in the manager's office, so I don't know if that has been moved to there.

astro-nut

In a couple weeks I would like to visit the Grissom Museum in Mitchell, Indiana. Could someone list the correct address for the museum, etc. and the hours they are open and a phone number as well. Thank you, very much.

Robert Pearlman

quote:Originally posted by astro-nut:Could someone list the correct address for the museum, etc. and the hours they are open and a phone number as well.

Beginning Sept. 29, the Grissom Memorial at Spring Mill State Park will close for renovations. The work will nearly double the space available for exhibits. The Gemini 3 capsule and spacesuit will still be a part of the memorial. However, the renovations will allow the park to showcase a variety of new items on loan from Betty Grissom, widow of the famed astronaut killed during a NASA training exercise Jan. 27, 1967.

"We've received more than 200 new items from Betty Grissom, including personal artifacts from Gus' boyhood and college days," said Jill Vance, Spring Mill's interpretive naturalist. "One of my personal favorite is a corned beef sandwich preserved in resin. During the Gemini flight, John Young snuck up a corned beef sandwich from his favorite deli and shared it with Gus mid-flight."

The Grissom Memorial will reopen in April. The renovated memorial will be officially rededicated July 18 during the park's annual Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom Day celebration. For now, however, the memorial is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily through Sept. 28.

Paul50

I'm new to this site. The info and photos at this post were very interesting. Mitchell, IN isn't easy to reach, but the museum and the park are both very nice destinations. I'm so glad to learn that this museum continues to grow and change.

astropat

quote:Originally posted by pokey: Does any other US county has as many hometown astronauts?

I am from Clinton County Iowa and we have three shuttle astronauts from here. Dale Gardner, David Hilmers and George "Pinky" Nelson. Nelson and Hilmers flew together on STS-26 the return to flight after Challenger.

GACspaceguy

I just got off of the phone with the folks at the museum and they plan on reopening in "a week or two". That puts it in about mid-May.

GACspaceguy

Just got off of the phone with the museum, it has now opened up once again.

sts205cdr

I collect space museum patches. Does anyone know if the Grissom Museum has a patch?

BMacKinnon

I just visited the memorial and monument this past Friday with my father along for the ride.

The renovated memorial is well done with a lot of great items on display! The Molly Brown was the highlight for me but getting to see his Gemini Suit and his Mercury helmet were an added bonus. Most sombering items were three photos from his funeral and the flag that draped his coffin.

Hopefully, someday I can make it out to Kansas to see the Liberty Bell!

Robert Pearlman

The Associated Press reports that the Grissom Memorial monument has been vandalized.